http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5585351/What-Mark-Zuckerberg-hiding-Facebook-secretly-deleted-founders-private-messages.html

What is Mark Zuckerberg hiding? Facebook secretly deletes some of its founder’s private messages over fears sensitive data may be leaked

• Three sources said old Facebook messages from Zuckerberg have disappeared
• Recipients were not notified – raising concerns about what the CEO is hiding
• Removal of messages was not disclosed publicly and users were not informed
• Company’s ability to tamper with Messenger could be alarming for some users

By Phoebe Weston For Mailonline

PUBLISHED: 06:02 EDT, 6 April 2018 | UPDATED: 08:35 EDT, 6 April 2018

*** begin quote ***

Facebook has deleted some of Mark Zuckerberg’s private messages over fears sensitive data could be leaked.

Three sources claim old Facebook messages from Zuckerberg have disappeared from their inbox. 

The recipients were not notified – raising concerns about what the Facebook CEO could be hiding.

Facebook claims the change was made after the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, when a mass data breach at the movie studio resulted in embarrassing email histories being leaked. 

However, the lack of disclosure has angered some users, along with the absence of a similar tool to recall messages for normal users.

*** end quote ***

Very interesting?

Of course, his upcoming Congressional testimony could NOT have anything to do with this “discovery”.

Yeah right.

Guess old Zuck forgot the second rule of legal tactics: “Say it, forget it; Write it, regret it.”

That’s just after: “Say nothing; admit nothing; and strenuously deny everything.” a la Bill Clinton.

Argh!

Now everyone will learn that there is nothing so “free” as a “free” service.

Argh!

Remarkable comparison to HRC’s emails?

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https://www.howtogeek.com/trivia/which-of-these-birds-teaches-their-offspring-a-secret-password-while-they-are-incubating/

Answer: Superb Fairywrens

In an incredibly clever bid to protect their offspring from parasitic bird species that would dump their young on superb fairywrens and flee, the wrens consistently use special vocalisations while the young wrens are still inside their eggs. Before parasitic birds like the Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoo can drop their eggs off in the nest, the wren’s own babies already know the secret vocalisation pattern by heart.

When all the eggs hatch, the wren chicks incorporate the secret vocalisation pattern into their begging for food and the mother provides the chicks that produce the vocalisation pattern the most accurately with the most food. The parasite’s chicks, on the other hand, don’t know the vocalisation pattern and the mother wren neglects them.

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I love useless factoids. 

Now I need it on Final Jeopardy!

Laugh!

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FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL “The 10-Point”

*** begin quote ***

Clean Living 

They drink less alcohol, eat more vegetables and less meat, meditate often, enjoy knitting and make their own pour-over coffee. Meet the “clean lifers,” the young adults who revel in dodging the indulgences of their elders. These typically educated 20-to-29-year-olds pursue healthy living as a way of asserting control and finding comfort in an unstable world, says one market-research analyst, whose company identified the trend as one of the top 10 emerging forces shaping consumer behavior. That has led product makers to target young adults who aspire to moderation but still might want to buy a beer, brownie pan or a packaged salad. Having grown up during the recession, many of these 20-somethings pursue healthful living as a way to find balance amid the global uncertainty that continues today.

*** end quote ***

I’ll be watch the press for the usual signs of excess.

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http://ew.com/tv/2018/03/02/jeopardy-tiebreaker/

Jeopardy! makes history with first-ever sudden death tiebreaker

*** begin quote ***

Jeopardy! history was made when two contestants competed during the final tournament of Thursday’s episode. While all three of the show’s competitors wrote in wrong submissions for the Channel Islands prompt, Laura and Sarah found themselves in a tie, which led to the first-ever Final Jeopardy! tiebreaker.

The tiebreaker rules were announced in 2016: “If there are two or three players tied for first place after each contestant unveils their Final Jeopardy! response, [host] Alex [Trebek] will present one more category and read the clue. The clue has no dollar value and does not increase the player’s winnings.”

*** end quote ***

I didn’t know they changed the rules.

Personally, I don’t see any reason not to have c0-champions other that to save a few bucks.

Back when you could have them, I thought the leader should wager for a tie unless it was a blow out. This way, two folks would collect.

Now that it’s no longer a possibility, I guess the leader needs to play to win by a buck.

Sigh!

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2018-Feb-06

https://www.wikitribune.com/story/2018/02/01/current_affairs/mass-graves-uncovered-in-myanmar-russia-says-no-cause-for-action-against-iran/45751/

*** begin quote ***

In 2008, after succeeding his brother Fidel as Cuba’s president, Raul Castro allowed more small scale capitalist ventures to flow into the communist nation. Hotels sprang up, along with nightclubs and restaurants. However, as Castro looks to leave office, he has started to reign in the trend. In August the government announced it was putting a halt on some new businesses.

*** end quote ***

Maybe DJT45 will allow free and unrestricted trade with Cuba.

Or even just turn a blind eye to it. Wasn’t it Western music aka the Beetles and blue jeans that brought down the USSR?

If that works on Cuba, then why can’t “we” try it with North Korea?

Dona Nobis Pacem

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https://aeon.co/essays/microchimerism-how-pregnancy-changes-the-mothers-very-dna

We are multitudes
Women are chimeras, with genetic material from both their parents and children. Where does that leave individual identity?

Katherine Rowland is a journalist. Her work has appeared in Nature, the Financial Times, the Independent, OnEarth and other publications. She is the publisher and director of Guernicamagazine, and lives in New York City. 

*** begin quote ***

When Lee Nelson first began researching autoimmune disorders in the 1980s, the prevailing assumption was that conditions such as arthritis and lupus tend to show up more commonly in women because they are linked to female sex hormones. But to Nelson, a rheumatologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, this explanation did not make sense. If hormones were the culprit, one would expect these afflictions to peak during a woman’s prime reproductive years, when instead they typically appear later in life. 

*** and ***

The self emerging from microchimeric research appears to be of a different order: porous, unbounded, rendered constituently. Nelson suggests that each human being is not so much an isolated island as a dynamic ecosystem. And if this is the case, the question follows as to how this state of collectivity changes our conscious and unconscious motivations. If I am both my children and my mother, if I carry traces of my sibling and remnants of pregnancies that never resulted in birth, does that change who I am and the way I behave in the world? If we are to take to heart Whitman’s multitudes, we encounter an I composed of shared identity, collective affiliations and motivations that emerge not from a mean and solitary struggle, but a group investment in greater survival.

*** end quote ***

I found this to be stunning and paradigm shifting.

How do you make sense of all these factoids?

Not sure what to make of all this.

Very confusing!

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http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec17/peak-NFL12-17.html

Have We Reached Peak NFL?
December 15, 2017

*** begin quote ***

To summarize:

1. The NFL has saturated the potential audience to the point of exhaustion.

2. The potential audience is shrinking as student-loan-burdened Millennials have collectively little interest in spending the money or time required to be a rabid fan of pro football.

3. The cost of attending an NFL game is increasingly out of reach of the bottom 95% of households.

4. TV viewership is declining across the entire demographic spectrum.

5. The wages/income of the vast majority of the TV audience has stagnated, and 95% of the populace has less disposable income than a generation ago.

6. The top 5% with the majority of the disposable income are not big pro sports fans, mostly due to the many demands on their time and the diversity of other pursuits available to them.

How will the owners and managers of the multi-billion-dollar NFL empire handle the league’s decline phase? Managing the decline phase is less fun than reveling in the expansion phase. 

*** end quote ***

Was it the interjection of politics or perhaps finding out that the taxpayers were paying for the NFL’s patriotism?

Perhaps, it’s just its time has past.

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https://www.boredpanda.com/domestic-violence-gun-safety-story-katherine-fugate/

Woman Reveals How Everyone Turned A Blind Eye To What Her Stepfather Was Doing
6 hours ago by James Gould-Bourn 

*** begin quote ***

In the wake of the horrific mass shooting that left 26 people dead in Sutherland Springs, Texas recently, writer Katherine Fugate decided to share her own story.“It starts somewhere. It starts in the home. I know what a mass shooter can look like.

*** end quote ***

A stunning indictment of deliberate ignorance.

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http://www.ancient-origins.net/history/chinese-may-have-beaten-famous-voyage-columbus-70-years-009117?nopaging=1

11 NOVEMBER, 2017 – 18:56 APRIL HOLLOWAY
The Chinese May Have Beaten the Famous Voyage of Columbus by 70 Years

*** begin quote ***

A Christie’s Auctions’ appraiser has allegedly confirmed the authenticity of the map. Historians are also said to have stated the map was written in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Menzies says that the map’s validity can also be used to explain the Chinese names of several towns and regions in Peru.

*** end quote ***

Who discovered “america”?

Who cares who discovered “america”?

I don’t really care. 

Other than the minor fact that what I was taught all my life may be wrong.

And, the experts, who poo poo amateur historian Gavin Menzies, just have to explain the map. I never heard of such a map, but I sure have heard of others. That’s “evidence” of educational malpractice.

What else have I been taught that’s wrong?

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FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL “The 10-Point”

Real Food, Virtual Restaurants 

If you have ever ordered a burrito through a food-delivery app, you may have been the patron of a virtual restaurant. No, it doesn’t require a VR headset, and the food is quite real. What makes these new restaurants virtual is that you find them only online. Tucked inside industrial parks, commissary kitchens and refitted basements in cities such as New York, Chicago and San Jose, these restaurants have no dining room, no wait staff, no takeout window or sign. Many don’t take orders over the phone and are accessible only through online services such as Grubhub, DoorDash or Postmates. With their low overhead, virtual restaurants avoid the capital-intensive model that kills 60% of new restaurants in their first five years.

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WOW!

That’s an interesting strategy to be in “food”.

I wonder if they can wipe the kitchens out of restaurants.

Hmmm?

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Watching a recent Jeopardy, I was reminded of my quest for the formula for final jeopardy wagering.

X, Y, and Z are the final amounts of the leader, midfielder, and trailer.

If X > 2Y, then there’s no calculation needed.

If X-2Y > 2Z, then the trailer plays no part in the action.

If X-2Y > Z, then the trailer must play to have any chance to win.

If X-2Y < Z, then the trailer must bet zero and hope they both miss.

Any other strategies?

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https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/10/joseph-mercola/does-sickness-smell/

Does Sickness Smell?
By Joseph Mercola Mercola.com October 23, 2017

*** begin quote ***

In yet another example, a Labrador retriever was trained to detect the scent of colorectal cancer from breath and stool samples with greater than 90 percent accuracy.21 Using breath samples, the dog could detect colorectal cancer with 91 percent accuracy and had an amazing 97 percent accuracy with stool samples. The researchers concluded:

“This study shows that a specific cancer scent does indeed exist and that cancer-specific chemical compounds may be circulating throughout the body. These odor materials may become effective tools in colorectal cancer screening.”

*** end quote ***

Hopefully soon, we can have “disease detectors” that mimic the dog’s ability.

Either that or an array of dogs that give you a sniff as you walk into the hospital. 

Maybe that’s the future of Gooferment “healthcare”?

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https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tom-woods-show/id716825890?mt=2&i=100039326650

Listen to Ep. 1019 Labor Unions: Myths and Facts from The Tom Woods Show in Podcasts. 

Haven’t labor unions improved the standard of living of American workers? Why, wouldn’t we not even have the weekend without them? My father belonged to the Teamsters, so I have a natural inclination to side with unions, but the facts won’t let me, and in this episode I explain why.

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Tom Woods puts the Gooferment laws squarely in the crosshairs for deliberately misstating the truth.

Labor Unions didn’t cause the progress in living standard. 

Obviously, the increase in wealth was due to the increase in productivity and the benefits of the modern division of labor.

Very worth a listen to disprove “facts” assumed to be truth.

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http://collectivelyconscious.net/articles/20-words-that-describes-emotions-we-can-feel-but-just-cant-explain/

*** begin quote *** 

14. Ellipsism:

(n) A sadness that you’ll never be able to know how history will turn out.

*** end quote ***

I recently had this feeling — which I never had; not maybe never recognized — when helping to care for a newborn. When he’s 20, I’ll be 90. When he’s 40, I’d be 120. Unless there is a “miracle of modern medicine”, I won’t be around to see how he makes out. Will he thrice or even survive?

It’s like reading a mystery novel and losing it before you find out who done it.

I think there were a MASH and a HIMYM episode, each like this.

Argh!

Frustrating, but nothing that can be done about it.

Maybe “we” should invent a “reverse time capsule”?

Double Argh!

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https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/the-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-has-finally-been-decoded/

MYSTERY SOLVED —The mysterious Voynich manuscript has finally been decoded
History researcher says that it’s a mostly plagiarized guide to women’s health.
ANNALEE NEWITZ – 9/8/2017, 4:10 PM

*** begin quote ***

Since its discovery in 1912, the 15th century Voynich Manuscript has been a mystery and a cult phenomenon. Full of handwriting in an unknown language or code, the book is heavily illustrated with weird pictures of alien plants, naked women, strange objects, and zodiac symbols. Now, history researcher and television writer Nicholas Gibbs appears to have cracked the code, discovering that the book is actually a guide to women’s health that’s mostly plagiarized from other guides of the era.

Gibbs writes in the Times Literary Supplement that he was commissioned by a television network to analyze the Voynich Manuscript three years ago. Because the manuscript has been entirely digitized by Yale’s Beinecke Library, he could see tiny details in each page and pore over them at his leisure. His experience with medieval Latin and familiarity with ancient medical guides allowed him to uncover the first clues.

*** end quote ***

Having had some training in cryptology, I found this interesting and somewhat funny.

I guess no one in 100+ years  ever put together the clues.

Great job by this fellow.

Guess we need an inventory of all the “puzzles” for TV shows to solve for us. Maybe they can solve all our problems.

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https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/07/walter-e-williams/western-values-superior/

Western Values Are Superior
By Walter E. Williams
July 26, 2017

*** begin quote ***

Here’s part of President Donald Trump’s speech in Poland: “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”

After this speech, which was warmly received by Poles, the president encountered predictable criticism. Most of the criticism reflected gross ignorance and dishonesty.

One example of that ignorance was penned in the Atlantic magazine by Peter Beinart, a contributing editor and associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York. Beinart said, “Donald Trump referred 10 times to ‘the West’ and five times to ‘our civilization.’ His white nationalist supporters will understand exactly what he means.” He added, “The West is a racial and religious term. To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white.”

*** and ***

By the way, one need not be a Westerner to hold Western values. One just has to accept the sanctity of the individual above all else.

*** end quote ***

From the barbarism and the treatment of women certainly illustrates how correct this is.

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http://www.cracked.com/article_16871_6-insane-discoveries-that-science-cant-explain.html

6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can’t Explain

*** begin quote ***

The Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica

The Mystery:

Costa Rica and a few surrounding areas are scattered with giant stone balls. They are smooth and perfectly spherical, or nearly so. Some of them are quite small, a few inches in diameter, but some of them are as large as eight feet in diameter weighing several tons.

They have been chiseled to perfection by persons unknown, despite the fact that Costa Rica is still not scheduled to enter the Bronze Age until 2013. The are balls everywhere and serve no apparent purpose, like a swing club on Gentlemen’s Night.

And God said, “It’s nice, but could use some more purposeless balls.”

Some of the balls have been blasted apart by locals hoping to find gold, coffee beans, or even babies. Some have been rolled around, but some are too heavy to move even with a bulldozer. Not that they have bulldozers in Costa Rica.

Why Can’t They Solve It?

About the most useful information anyone has gotten is that there are not, under any circumstance, any quarries anywhere near the balls. This information is actually useless considering the balls are carved from volcanic rock.

Our Guess:

In 1,000 years the eggs of the stone men will hatch, and their offspring will emerge to rule the Earth.

*** end quote ***

It’s amazing how little we know.

I wonder how many more “mysteries” there are. Probably need a Snopes-like site to catalog them.

Argh!

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https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/16/dear-united-autonomous-cars-will-pull-you-out-of-your-seat/?ncid=rss

CRUNCH NETWORK
Dear United: Autonomous cars will pull you out of your seat
Posted 4 hours ago by Cyrus Radfar (@cyrusradfar)

*** begin quote ***

The Golden Triangle: Faster, Cheaper, and Better

In general, terrestrial short haul may be as fast or slightly slower than airlines, today. Nevertheless, it’s likely to be much more consistent on both price and time to the destination.

It’s hard to believe that the experience wouldn’t be more comfortable door to door and it will, likely, be much more affordable, especially for business group travel.

*** and ***

According to some estimates, the price of cabs sans driver could come down as much as three-quarters. If the journey between LA and SF with one passenger may be twice the cost of the best price and with more passengers, autonomous travel would become the cheaper option.

*** end quote ***

Interesting is the cost savings. ¾ price advantage, no security, and a comfortable ride — sounds like the poor man’s “private jet”.

Where do I sign up?

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2017-Jul-11 1055

Interesting morning. 

I was driving the Caddie and pulled out of 7-11 when there was big gap in the traffic. Someone jumped into my gap and I was forced to stay on the shoulder for three or four cars. Finally a cop let me in. I waved thanks and toodled along. 

Two lights later, he lit me up and pulled me over. Argh!

So I sat quietly until he walked up to the car. On his way to the driver’s side window, he touched the driver’s side rear light. That struck me as strange.

“Registration and insurance card”. I responded: “It’s in the glove box.” “Ok, you can get it now and thanks for telling me.” I got them out and the contents of the box rolled out. I took them out of the evelope and passed them to him. 

“License.” “In my wallet”. “OK”. So extracted the wallet and pulled it out and handed it to him.

He said: “I pulled you over because your license came back as suspended. Did you turn your NJ license when you got a NH one?” “yes. The car is based in NJ so it’s registered and insursed here.” “OK.”

He went back to the police car. And spent a few minutes. On the way back, he touched the taillight again. Struck me as strange.

“Do you still have the address in Kendall Park?” “Yes.” “OK. No problem.”

And I went on my way.

I’m still wondering why he touched the car?

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UPDATE

http://www.rd.com/advice/travel/cops-touch-cars-tail-light-traffic-stops/1/?trkid=NL-RANDOM-072817&_cmp=ReadUpRDUSLiveIntent&_ebid=ReadUpRDUSLiveIntent7282017&_mid=159852&ehid=d0710e71c64f1dc22bdeeadff8aca9e5205e14d8

Confirmation.

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https://www.wired.com/2017/04/norways-bold-maybe-foolhardy-plan-build-worlds-first-ship-tunnel/

AUTHOR: LIZ STINSON.
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 04.09.17.
TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM.
NORWAY’S BOLD, MAYBE FOOLHARDY PLAN TO BUILD THE WORLD’S FIRST SHIP TUNNEL

*** begin quote ***

NORWAY IS HOME to more than 1,100 road tunnels. They cut through the mountains and stretch under its deep sea, allowing vehicles a more direct route through the country’s challenging terrain. The Scandinavian country has burrowed thoroughfares for nearly every mode of transportation—except one.

“We build a lot of tunnels, just not for ships” says Terje Andreassen, head of Kystverket, the Norwegian coastal administration. It’s strange when you think about it. Norway has more than 18,000 miles of coastline, punctuated by rugged cliffs that jut into the sea like outstretched fingers. The country’s fjords fill the long, slender gaps between the cliffs. These narrow inlets are famed for their beauty, but are a pain for shipping vessels. Traversing the country’s coast requires venturing in and out of fjords, which is inefficient; and rough waters on the open ocean occasionally strand boats in an inlet’s relatively placid waters. That’s why, for the last two years, Kystverket and the architecture firm Snohetta have plugged away at a proposal to build the world’s first ship tunnel. The recently approved plan calls for a mile-long passageway through the Stadlandet Peninsula in northwestern Norway, and would afford boats a safe and quick alternative to the tumultuous waters separating two major fjords.

*** end quote ***

Seems so obvious.

And a great engineering feat.

Makes life better, safer, and more predictable for their society.

My only question is: “As a gooferment project, as opposed to one funded and done by an entrepreneur, how much of a boondoggle will this become?”

We’ll just have to wait and see.

— 30 —

FROM THE WSJ

Private Turned Public 

Purdue University, a flagship public institution in Indiana, is jumping into online education by buying for-profit Kaplan University with the aim of creating a new, public online university. The highly unusual acquisition will extend Purdue’s reach to more working adults while building an additional revenue stream at a time when state funding is uncertain. Purdue President Mitch Daniels said the school wanted to stay true to its land-grant mission of educating as many people as possible, but he recognized it couldn’t build an online presence alone. The venture highlights the shifting higher-education market as public funding declines, tuitions rise and college students grow older, busier and more indebted. Purdue said it plans to acquire Kaplan University’s 32,000 students, 3,000 employees and 15 bricks-and-mortar campuses and learning centers from Graham Holdings, which will maintain Kaplan’s international, professional and test-prep businesses.

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A few years ago, one sage fellow said that in the future there would only be 100 Colleges or Universities in the USA. Everything else would be online or dead.

Sounds like that’s going to be true.

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